It seems like just yesterday that tech companies were fleeing California's high costs and setting up shop in cheap, hip Texas cities such as Austin. But TechCrunch reports that the Lone Star State has "lost its luster" in recent months. The weather is merciless, the housing market is broken, the power grid is shaky, the supposed benefits hide hidden costs, and there is "a perceived lack of diversity."
People who moved here for affordability reasons quickly realized the city was not as inexpensive as they expected — especially when it came to housing. Austin's housing market went berserk in 2020 and 2021… Funding is also down. Venture funding in the city totaled $6.75 billion in 2021 and $5.5 billion in 2022, according to PitchBook data. In the first three quarters of 2023, venture funding was down 46% to $2.9 billion compared to $5.3 billion raised in the first three quarters of 2021, and down 36% compared to $4.5 billion in 2022's first nine months. … Mike Chang, a 30-year-old founder and angel investor, told Business Insider earlier this year that he regretted moving from Los Angeles to Austin during the pandemic. "Austin is where ambition goes to die," he told the publication.
That one line about diversity was enough to make the usual crowd upset at the writer for shoe-horning woke politics into it. But if anything, it underplays an emerging problem. A near-total ban on abortion has come into effect, anti-LGBTQ+ pogroms are afoot, and the state is governed by blatantly corrupt wackos. This must have a sorting effect on the candidate pool that wasn't there two years ago. If you can get pregnant or are queer or not a permanent resident or citizen, Texas is riskier now.
